Call of Duty Black Ops Articles, Tips, and Tricks

Call of Duty: Black Ops Reviewed

Black Ops is by no means the best a Call of Duty game can be. It has plenty of issues. In the single player, the hardest difficulty can be punishing, but that famous video also shows that the AI can take control of nearly any situation. In the multiplayer, it's plagued by latency issues and the usual spawn entrapment, unbalanced weapons, and crude players. Zombies has issues all of its own.

That's not to say it's a bad game. Call of Duty Black Ops is one of the most fun FPS games out there, despite all it's flaws. So what do we think of the game? Some people say it's the best Call of Duty yet! On the other hand, maybe it's just another step in the long line of succession. After all, it's only going to be relevant until Modern Warfare 3 comes out, isn't it? It's up to you to decide how important the game is to you, whether it's just another Treyarch title to skip before Infinity Ward gets back in the game, or whether it's where the true fun lies in between those Modern Warfare steamers. Or maybe you just like them all? in any case, there's plenty to learn about the game, and we have lots to tell you.

Basics of the Game

There's a lot you need to know about Black Ops if you want to excel. The game, especially the multiplayer, has a vast selection of weapons. Some of them are unbalanced, like the overpowered FAMAS. Others are powerful underdogs, like the silenced SPAS. Still others, like most sniper rifles and grenade launchers, are woefully underpowered. Read about all of them in our Weapons guide. Don't worry if, when you first start, you're not handling the weapons like you think you should. Many of the weapons in Single Player don't handle the same as they do in Multiplayer, and the best guns in MP all come later on. When you're at level 1 there's not much you can do, as with any game.

In Multiplayer, one of the primary ways to show your style and communicate with other players when you kill them, is with your emblem. Emblems are robustly customizable, and with enough creativity you can make almost anything. Why not check out our Top 20 Black Ops Emblems and see if there's something you like? Be sure to let us know if there's something missing from our guide.

Multiplayer itself has a lot for you to learn. Everything from the COD Bucks, to the individual maps, to custom classes, weapon camos and facepaints. A lot is customizable in this game, and there's a lot to learn. Read all about it in our detailed Multiplayer Guide! Don't forget the other three parts linked at the bottom.

Don't want to read all of that? Want to keep it simple with a few good tips and tricks to make your Black Ops online experience the best it can be? Well go ahead and learn how to kill more, and die less, with these tips and tricks. Or you can just skip right to the chase and find out what the best classes are for Black Ops.

Mason’s Adventures and the Undead Threat

Follow the single player campaign for the achievements, and you'll be introduced to Mason, the main character. You play primarily in flashbacks, being tortured to find out what you know about the impending attack on the US. Need help getting through a particular section? Go ahead and look up the appropriate part in our excellent single-player guide. The First Part covers the missions Operation 40, Vorkuta, Executive Order, SOG, and The Defector. This part covers the missions Numbers, Project Nova, Victor Charlie, Crash Site, and WMD. The third and final part covers Payback, Rebirth, and Redemption. By the time you've gone through the entire game, you should have a good grasp on how to handle yourself in the multiplayer to come. If not, well, there's always time to learn.

If you're playing the game for fun, read those guides. If you're playing for serious business, looking to up your gamerscore with every last point available in the game, read the Black Ops achievement guide.

When you're done with all that, prepare to face down the corpses of your fallen comrades, zombified monkeys, and who knows what other horrors. Have flashbacks to Kino Der Toten when you play it on this new system, and deal with the zombie threat there. Or just read some more general information, coming to us with the Ascension pack. Whatever the case, don't worry about winning. You can't win.